Phil Murphy

Philip D. "Phil" Murphy (16 August 1957) was the United States ambassador to Germany from 3 September 2009 to 26 August 2013, succeeding William R. Timken and preceding John B. Emerson. A Democratic Party politician, originally from Massachusetts, Murphy ran for Governor of New Jersey in 2017.

Biography
Phil Murphy was born in Needham, Massachusetts, United States on 16 August 1957 to a Catholic Irish family. Murphy was born to a lower-middle class family that lived paycheck-to-paycheck, and he became a dishwasher at the age of 13 in order to help his family. He put himself through college at Harvard University through student loans and part-time jobs, and he graduated in 1979 with an A.B. degree in economics. In 1982, he became an intern at Goldman Sachs while attending the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and he was hired after graduating in 1983. From 1993 to 1997, he lived in Frankfurt as supervisor of Goldman Sachs' operations in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, and he served as president of the Asian branch from 1997 to 1999. After a successful business career, Murphy was made chair of the New Jersey Benefits Task Force in 2005, dealing with the pension crisis.

From 2006 to 2009, Murphy served as National Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee, and he financed his close friend Howard Dean's "50 state strategy". In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed him as ambassador to Germany, and he stepped down as ambassador in 2013 in reaction to the European debt crisis and leaked diplomatic cables that showed Murphy speaking poorly of Angela Merkel and Guido Westerwelle. He would open his own business management consultancy firm and create the New Start New Jersey progressive think tank, and he announced that he was running for Governor of New Jersey in May 2016, an unusual start date for announcements. After Mayor of Jersey City Steven Fulop endorsed Murphy, Murphy gained a significant lead in the Democratic primaries, although his rival John S. Wisniewski criticized him for being an "establishment" Goldman Sachs banker.